Costa Lopez Park and Community Garden

Costa Lopez Taylor Park is located on Charles Street in East Cambridge and includes an expanded "pocket park" space with community garden plots in raised planting beds, along with tables, chairs, benches and sitting walls, and a sculptural entrance gate by artist Roberley Bell. A 2008 project expanded the park to an additional parcel of land and closed the section of Lopez Avenue adjacent to the new property to create an uninterrupted connection with the existing park.

In 2000, the Beal Companies deeded to the City of Cambridge a 4,500-square-foot parcel of land at Lopez Avenue and Charles Street, across from Costa Lopez Taylor Park. Over several years, community members and Community Development Department staff discussed future open space uses for this site. Neighbors expressed interest in having this serve as a passive-use open space, with plantings and landscape improvements, tables and sitting areas. There was also interest from the neighborhood in incorporating community gardening plots.

In 2007, the East Cambridge Planning Team, with the support of the City of Cambridge, created a temporary “Painted Park” to designate the site as a future park. In the fall of 2007, the Community Development Department developed a design for the new park space with input from community members. The design was completed in early 2008 and construction finished later that year.